May 21, 2020
Governments across the globe are struggling to balance restrictive measures to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus and the need to continuously make and adjust decisions around reopening the economy. To accelerate a data-driven response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ataccama – a global provider of AI-powered data management solutions and member of Zelusit Group – is offering its enterprise-proven technology to governments free of charge.
“We cannot tackle the COVID-19 pandemic without reliable data,” states Ataccama CEO Michal Klaus.
In order for governments to accurately assess the immunity of a population and how quickly the virus is spreading, detailed data about tests must be collected, processed, and consolidated accurately (and ideally in real-time). Under current conditions, however, testing data is highly unreliable. This is primarily due to manual data recording during the testing process, as well as a decentralized testing approach with data residing in hundreds of lab systems stored in various formats. Aside from typos and incorrect dates, addresses, and ID numbers, COVID-19 testing data contains a high percentage of duplicates.
In many countries, decision-makers and the public alike have access only to statistics based on summary reports, not detailed data. We see only the number of tests being reported, not the number of individuals tested. This is problematic, as a key metric for decision making around reopening the economy is the ratio of new positive cases to the number of tests performed. Because of high rates of duplicates, this indicator may be off by as much as 10%–50%.
Getting data into shape in the traditional way, by integrating lab systems, hospital systems, and central health data processing institutions, would take years. Luckily, there is a faster way.
Hundreds of global organizations use the Ataccama ONE platform to quickly integrate, cleanse, and deduplicate data in heterogeneous data landscapes. In a matter of a few short weeks, governments can be provided:
A secure portal for labs to provide their testing data, in batches, real time, or daily
AI-driven profiling and validation functionality for operators to quickly identify data issues
Automated and manual data cleansing and data quality monitoring
Matching and merging of duplicate PII information
A master data management hub to store, manage, and provide clean and consistent data for each person tested, including all tests conducted and their results
“With advanced data management and governance, authorities can model the pandemic development based on real, high-quality data, make the right decisions, and balance restrictions needed to save lives while reopening the economy as fast as possible. We’re proud to offer our software and technical know-how to governments and institutions tackling this challenge around the globe,” concludes Klaus.
In this article, Michal Klaus explains the importance of using accurate COVID-19 testing data for a faster, safer reopening of the economy, and describes how a modern data management technology could help.
